On second thought...
Back in January we crowned Damien Cox as the 2008 Mittenstringer of the Year. Cox, the namesake of this site, was a shoo-in for the inaugural award in 2007, but was pipped at the finish like by Steve Simmons, who turned in a stupid-on-steroids performance that couldn't be denied.
However, it took only 22 cold January days for us to determine that no one was topping the idiocy that Cox displayed in the waning days of Brylcreem Jr.'s maniacal reign at the helm of Canada's most beloved hockey team.
It seemed like a good idea at the time. I mean who could ever top this? Well, the answer, my friend, is a blowhard radio news man with a bushy nose-neighbour and a commitment to justice for the proletariat.
Over the last few weeks there has been a groundswell of resentment and anger directed towards Working Class Howard. Message boards are filled with diatribes against our favourite mustachioed mittenstringer. There is a petition to have his blog removed from Eklund's Magical World of Make-Believe. Pension Plan Puppets ripped him forty-two new assholes on Friday. Varry Galk wrote a post for this site about Berger which has received three times as much traffic as anything we normally post.
Has something changed? Why, all of a sudden, has Howard become such a subject of scorn? We've been ripping on the man since we started this blog, and many others have tried to keep Howard honest in the past, but these last few weeks it seems like everyone hates Howie. Maybe everyone finally reached their breaking point with Howard's manipulation of the facts, incessant Leaf-fan bashing, and periodic bouts of bewildering weirdness when he uses his blog to list the arenas visited during his career or wage class warfare against millionaire athletes.
Or, maybe, Howard is taking so much criticism because he is the only one working this summer. While Simmons has spent the last few weeks trying to figure whatever happened to Randy Knorr, and Damien Cox is off wondering whether Rafa Nadal could beat Tiger Woods in a game of Golfennis, Working Class Howard has spewed out a steady stream of bullshit that seems to have made a lot of people very unhappy.
His recent column about Nikolai Kulemin, (in which Leafs fans are scorned as deluded cult members for daring to be excited about a promising rookie who just happened to be the Russian league and playoff MVP last year) is just the latest frightening jeremiad by a man who, at this rate, will be outside the ACC with a sandwich board by opening night. His evidence? Outdated scouting reports and a guys signature on a message board profile. Next week he will probably count the number of blue cars parked on a square block of Eglinton and conclude that Leafs Nation has decided Mark Bell is a lock for next year's Hart Trophy.
It's gotten to the point where the commenters on Eklund's Candyland are in open revolt against the longtime champion of the working man, starting a petition to have him removed as Leafs correspondent and boycotting his entries. It's truly ironic that a man who has long championed boycotting the Leafs has become the target of a boycott himself. Is it possible to boycott the monolithic Leafs, who dominate a market in which 90% of Leaf fans don't come within Kyle Wellwood's refrigerator of attending a game? No. But boycotting an online column? That's a lot more feasible.
So, this is where you come in Bloc Heads. We don't want to come off like Brett Favre or Mr. Terrence Funk, but we think we may have to un-retire the 2008 Mittenstringer of the Year Award. Is it fair to strip Damien of his award? This isn't to say that Damien's work isn't terrible, but is it is mind-numbingly terrible as Howard Berger's? Either way, Berger may be doing the most valuable service of all. Every article he writes seems to be turning more and more Leafs followers towards blogs like Down Goes Brown and PPP in search of intelligent Leaf coverage. Maybe he really does care about the fans. Leave your thoughts in the comments.
*****A Godd Till and Kim Jorn Joint*****
However, it took only 22 cold January days for us to determine that no one was topping the idiocy that Cox displayed in the waning days of Brylcreem Jr.'s maniacal reign at the helm of Canada's most beloved hockey team.
It seemed like a good idea at the time. I mean who could ever top this? Well, the answer, my friend, is a blowhard radio news man with a bushy nose-neighbour and a commitment to justice for the proletariat.
Over the last few weeks there has been a groundswell of resentment and anger directed towards Working Class Howard. Message boards are filled with diatribes against our favourite mustachioed mittenstringer. There is a petition to have his blog removed from Eklund's Magical World of Make-Believe. Pension Plan Puppets ripped him forty-two new assholes on Friday. Varry Galk wrote a post for this site about Berger which has received three times as much traffic as anything we normally post.Has something changed? Why, all of a sudden, has Howard become such a subject of scorn? We've been ripping on the man since we started this blog, and many others have tried to keep Howard honest in the past, but these last few weeks it seems like everyone hates Howie. Maybe everyone finally reached their breaking point with Howard's manipulation of the facts, incessant Leaf-fan bashing, and periodic bouts of bewildering weirdness when he uses his blog to list the arenas visited during his career or wage class warfare against millionaire athletes.
Or, maybe, Howard is taking so much criticism because he is the only one working this summer. While Simmons has spent the last few weeks trying to figure whatever happened to Randy Knorr, and Damien Cox is off wondering whether Rafa Nadal could beat Tiger Woods in a game of Golfennis, Working Class Howard has spewed out a steady stream of bullshit that seems to have made a lot of people very unhappy.
His recent column about Nikolai Kulemin, (in which Leafs fans are scorned as deluded cult members for daring to be excited about a promising rookie who just happened to be the Russian league and playoff MVP last year) is just the latest frightening jeremiad by a man who, at this rate, will be outside the ACC with a sandwich board by opening night. His evidence? Outdated scouting reports and a guys signature on a message board profile. Next week he will probably count the number of blue cars parked on a square block of Eglinton and conclude that Leafs Nation has decided Mark Bell is a lock for next year's Hart Trophy.
It's gotten to the point where the commenters on Eklund's Candyland are in open revolt against the longtime champion of the working man, starting a petition to have him removed as Leafs correspondent and boycotting his entries. It's truly ironic that a man who has long championed boycotting the Leafs has become the target of a boycott himself. Is it possible to boycott the monolithic Leafs, who dominate a market in which 90% of Leaf fans don't come within Kyle Wellwood's refrigerator of attending a game? No. But boycotting an online column? That's a lot more feasible.
So, this is where you come in Bloc Heads. We don't want to come off like Brett Favre or Mr. Terrence Funk, but we think we may have to un-retire the 2008 Mittenstringer of the Year Award. Is it fair to strip Damien of his award? This isn't to say that Damien's work isn't terrible, but is it is mind-numbingly terrible as Howard Berger's? Either way, Berger may be doing the most valuable service of all. Every article he writes seems to be turning more and more Leafs followers towards blogs like Down Goes Brown and PPP in search of intelligent Leaf coverage. Maybe he really does care about the fans. Leave your thoughts in the comments.
*****A Godd Till and Kim Jorn Joint*****
Berger just ovecompensates for his Leaf fanaticism.He falls in and out of love the team(and players)all season long.He wears his heart on his sleeve,bt you guys are nuts if you can't see he's a hardcore Leaf freak,kinda reminds me of myself
Or, maybe, Howard is taking so much criticism because he is the only one working this summer. While Simmons has spent the last few weeks trying to figure whatever happened to Randy Knorr, and Damien Cox is off wondering whether Rafa Nadal could beat Tiger Woods in a game of Golfennis, Working Class Howard has spewed out a steady stream of bullshit that seems to have made a lot of people very unhappy.
It's definitely something to ponder but in the interests of fairness I think that considering the training that Rosie DiMANno has put in during her Ugly Canadian Olympic Tour and Howard's willingness to write nonsense on his vacation that you declare the race for 2008 Mittenstringer of the Year open!
I almost forgot about Rosie. Looks like we could have a good race for this year's title.
Well, throwing the race back open would keep things interesting.
But the problem is, although Berger's columns are far, far worse than Cox's, he is also considerably dumber and far less important. Only if you weight "badness" equally or more heavily than "damage caused by being bad" does Howie really enter the conversation.
On the other hand, Rosie's antics may well be worthy of '08 MOTY consideration. But Cox's coverage of JFJ/Cliff was so bad, so very, very bad...